baporter,

I have no idea what "my battery was showing 25.6 and rising" means. 25.6 what? The only real test of a battery is when it is subjected to a high current load such as cranking the engine.
If the starter cranks the engine as it always did, there is nothing wrong with the battery or starting system.

How did you test the glow plugs? If you replaced them all its not a problem with the GP themselves. Take one of the old GP, one you know is good, and clamp it to a good ground with a locking pliers near enough to connect one of the wires removed from any of the other glow plugs and connect that wire to the clamped GP. You will now be able to observ what the GP inside the engine are doing.

If the GP you can see does not glow brightly when the key switch is turned to the pre glow or run position the problem is in the GP electrical system. Have you checked the fuse in the GP relay? If the fuse is OK it might be a bad GP relay. The fuse can have a hair line crack even though it looks good.

Do the above test and let me know the results.

You should get a sort of buzzing noise when you pump the hand pump. This is the fuel going past the pressure relief valve in the injection pump (IP) and is normal operating procedure. When this happens, the IP is purged from any air that may have been in it. Your hand pump is probably OK.

The way the fuel system works is that it is sort of constant flow. The fuel pump pumps the fuel against the resistance in the IP relief valve which creates pressure. The relief valve opens at a predesignated pressure and the excess flow is returned to the fuel tank. The over flow from the injectors is also connected to the return fuel line. There is also a tiny hole in the top of the secondary fuel filter which automatically bleeds air from the filter. So by pumping the hand pump, the system is purged from any air. The lines from the IP to the injectors are purged automatically when the IP pumps fuel to the injectors.

P E H